South Coyote Butte, UT

09Apr

Three days in Vegas, even for the NAB, is way more than enough for me so I drove in early evening about 3 hours and slept overnight in Hurricane, UT. The plan was good but the execution was amiss because the morning drive to Kanab took a little longer than expected and i arrived right when the lottery for the famous “Wave” started. The lottery room was even fuller than it was last year when I was able to secure a pass. But no matter that I intended to play again this year the main reason for which I came to Kanab was to participate in the lottery for South Coyote Butte, the other part of this amazing realm. But when all the dissapointed players who did not win the “Wave” lottery left the room the promised lottery for the Southern part, that normally is held at 10:00 am, was skipped because of lack of participants and I was handled a pass for $5 that was valid for today.

The permit

Energized by the success I drove about 1 hour through the House Rock Valley Road to the Lone Tree Road whose condition proved to be worse than anticipated by the rangers. From the House Rock Valley Road there are about 2.3 miles to the Paw Hole trail head, where are found the main formations in the South Coyote Butte. The road requires a 4X4 vehicle. I had a SUV but not 4X4 and after I drove about 1/3 of the road the sand started to be all over and sometimes quite deep and, not having a shovel with me, I decided that is better to leave my car and walk to the trail head. This part of the road is considered OK for high clearance vehicles in comparison with some other parts of the road that are not passable.

The entrance to Paw Hole area

There is no trail in neither of the Coyote Buttes and here you may be able to orient yourself on the traces left in the sand by previous travelers. The landscape is not very different from the one in the North with an impressive collection of teepes, cone shaped tall rocks on whose surfaces the wind started to form future “waves”.

The furthest formations

The guessed path is following the outside perimeter of these formations and is climbing the dunes covered by bushes and cacti till you reach a rock and some teepes that look to be the highest. From there if you continue to walk on a flat area toward the further formations you reach an area that is closer in look with the “Wave” in the North Coyote Butte.

Wave

What is different here are some black stripes across the rocks seen mainly in areas that were shaped by wind.

Teepes

The entire trip is about 3 miles round trip from the entrance of Paw Hole. It takes about 3-4 hours. At return knowing the topography of the place I could come down through the teepes that are hiding among them a fantastic world of shapes and colors.